If there were awards for best Fringe costume I’d expect the one that Mamoru Iriguchi designed for this charming and funny children’s show to be on the shortlist. Big, cuddly and clever, it enables the Edinburgh-based performer to play two roles: one is Lionel the Lion, a resident of the Serengeti who dreams of being a vegetarian; the other is Mamoru himself, whom Lionel has just eaten.

Iriguchi has a distinct, cherishable talent (and a background in zoology) that he has shown in his slightly odd but inventive works. The same can be said of Eaten. For much of the 45-minute performance we see Iriguchi’s smallish head inside Lionel’s much bigger one as the two discuss the food chain and, by extension, the natural cycles of life and death. Add in Iriguchi’s straight-faced wit and his ability to combine childlike innocence and DIY sophistication, and what you get is an educational conceptualist entertainment for ages six and up that plays with the notion “you are what you eat”.

Additionally, the show features an affable Scottish narrator (Suzi Cunningham), a modest bit of puppetry, relaxed audience participation and a fair amount of frank, non-sniggery talk about poo. The script risks becoming convulated at times, but the several surprising turns it takes kept me and the small but appreciative audience engaged throughout.